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“Pump It Up” – Mudhoney
(Words/music: Elvis Costello, available on March to Fuzz, Sub Pop 2000)

I’ve had two relatively short, strictly recreational stints in garage bands.  The first happened in high school, playing with a couple guys who wrote songs before I even was in the picture.  The second happened during summer vacation during college with some friends who wanted to play songs that we loved.  With these two bands, I played a total of one gig – a barbeque as an excuse for our band to play the five or six songs we knew.  However, as soon as I started listening to records and playing the drums, I started thinking about the kinds of bands I wanted to be in.  I still, from time to time, find myself listening to a song and thinking “I want to be in a band that sounds like this.”  Of course, the next song starts and I still haven’t picked up one of my dormant instruments.

Regardless, Mudhoney always struck me as the ideal form of my garage band ambitions.  From the first time I heard the band (first on “Overblown” on the Singles soundtrack, then on “Touch Me I’m Sick”), their blistering pace and tongue-in-cheek lyrics seemed like the right mix of energy and edge.  Their cover of Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up” plays like the world’s best garage band, stomping through Costello’s snotty song with the right combination of abandon and attention to detail.  While Mark Arm is no Elvis Costello (comparing how the two handle the “listen to the propaganda, listen to the latest slander” line illustrates the difference), he sings the verses with a chip on his shoulder, seemingly sending the message that he can pull off a song that few others would attempt.  This, ultimately, is Mudhoney’s legacy – one where they were skilled enough, whether as songwriters or musicians – to make what they did sound deceptively simple.  Perhaps this is why Mudhoney exists in the shadow of their more ambitious peers, but it’s also what gives the band the attitude and charisma that radio-grunge often lacked.  If nothing else, they would blow away your neighborhood’s best band.

More on Mudhoney: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm